Praggnanandhaa vs Javokhir Sindarov | Candidates 2026 Round

Let's take a look at the standings going into round three of the Candidates 2026. Three players shared the lead. Praginananda, Sindarov and Karawana. So Karawana had white against Weiyi. You can see that game elsewhere on the channel. I've already recorded that. And the other two leaders, Prag and Sindarov, played against each other. So two 20-year-olds, two of the most exciting players in the world, both incredible prospects, well not just for the future but right now. And their game did not disappoint. This was an absolute cracker. Praginananda playing white against Sindarov. India against Uzbekistan. Two rival nations and two rival players. D5 from Sindarov. No King's Indian. Remember he played that very successfully in the Tatar Steel Masters against Matthias Blübaum. Fantastic game. So is he going to be more solid today? Is he ever? Let's find out. Queen's Gambit declined. I mean solid so far. And Prag goes for Bf4 which is, well these days, I think the main line in the Queen's Gambit declined actually. And now black can go for Nd7, b6. But Sindarov plays what is really the old main line and played a great deal today as well. c5 attacking the center. That was exchanged off. And then a3. This is all absolutely normal. You might recall a game in the Tatar Steel Masters, another one, between Giri and Edomuş where Giri, after Qa5, outplayed the Turkish prodigy with Rd1. There's a lot of theory around that. There's also Kars' queen side which leads to absolutely crazy positions. I mean there are hundreds and hundreds of games with these moves. Sindarov plays something that's a little bit unusual. Re8. So clearly looking to push forward with e5. So Prag played Bg5. Now those of you with long memories might recall that this move was actually played in the Anand Carlsen World Championship match in 2014. Carlsen played this. But in this position he stepped back with the bishop to break the pin. And then, well he had to play quite accurately to equalize this position. But Sindarov had another idea in mind. He played d4. So this is a very ambitious move. So if this is taken then, well you know, black gets an outpost on d4. In fact I remember seeing this move a few years ago, 10 years ago, in London. London Chess Classic 2016. The game between Topalov and Anand that, well it was a crazy game. Anand won a brilliant game actually after this. Okay that's another story. I think I recorded the game on the channel. I'll find it and put the link up. But instead Prag took on f6. Queen f6, knight e4. So that hits queen and bishop. So the queen stepped up to protect the bishop. Now Prag thought for over 13 minutes here. And there's a couple of very sharp moves. I mean I think you can no longer control this position with white. You just have to roll with it. So Bd3 is very interesting. And then you can play like some weird gambit line like this. White has very good compensation. I mean black is okay but it's tricky. But Prag went for b4 instead. Also absolutely wild. The bishop can retreat but Sindarov, well he spent 15 minutes here and sacked a piece. You know, he's not one to back down. And Kd1. Yeah if Nd2 then black takes here, takes here and has pretty decent compensation. You just got to get your pieces out as quickly as possible. You know the king's staggering around in the middle. But Prag played instead Kd1. Takes on e3. Bd3. It's a really weird position. So there could be some kind of discovered attack. So Qg6 threatening to take here. So f takes, e3 defends. And f5. So that obviously blocks out the bishop. And then Bc5. So we've got a situation where let's just take stock. Black has sacrificed a piece. Has two bishops and two pawns. I mean the two bishops, the bishop on c8 isn't in play yet. The bishop on c5 is a strong piece. White's king is wandering around. I mean it's just a really chaotic position. Here Prag played Qc3. He should have played e4 which is pretty wild breaking things open. Especially when you're king in the middle. But he played Qc3 instead. So here I think we should have a think and drink moment. How would you play if you were playing with black in this position? Black to play. Cheers! Do you want to improve your chess? Get access to live masterclasses with yours truly? Then subscribe to patreon.com forward slash powerplaychess and for just $25 a month you get a newsletter with a test game, calculation puzzles, a monthly opening survey, access to an archive with over 100 opening surveys. And you can join in live masterclasses exclusive to patrons where you can ask me questions directly over zoom. All for only $25 per month. Do subscribe to patreon.com forward slash powerplaychess and join the club. Qc3 was a mistake and that's possible that Prag missed a simple tactic here. Because after e5, best move, did he spot it? Then that really helps black's position. So you've got these two nice pawns rolling through the middle. But also this bishop can come into play as well. The problem is if knight takes pawn, queen f6 and that is obviously not very pleasant for white because the pin and black picks up the knight. Okay back we go. So bishop c2 because e4 was a threat and now black's compensation is more evident with this space and the king is wandering around. You know this is a weak pawn. More than that Prag was in time pressure already. So this is move 21 and he still had well a lot of moves to make to 19 moves to get to the time control and he had well he had under 20 minutes by this stage. And you know that you could sense that Sindarov was growing in confidence. Rook d8, penny, king c1. You know where does that king go? I mean it's not particularly safe on the queen side. I suppose there are these pieces around it but there's no pawn cover to speak of. Qg5 hits the pawn defended by the rook. Qe7 and Re2. To my mind that's a strange move. I think it would have been better to play rook d1 and then there's potential to actually connect the rooks. Yes after rook e2 we've got split rooks. Yeah you can tick a box on the power play chess bingo card. Split rooks it's not good. Bishop b4 hits the queen and a5 good move because well not only does it secure the bishop but it means that the rook can sneak out into play without even developing that bishop. Knight d4, Qg5 the queen comes back into play. I mean what I like about Sindarov's play is that he's kind of not panicking. He's just bringing out his pieces steadily and just increasing the pressure. You know he's not panicking somehow and the knight gets pushed back. Now the bishop comes into play. Rook c8 hits the pawn on c4. So knight d2. You noticed how okay the knight on d4 is a good piece but the other knight and the bishop they don't have much to do. That pawn on e4 is doing a fantastic job of just shutting them out of the game. Rook b6 lining up against the queen. If you look at this position with the computer in fact it's still okay for white but you can just feel the trend in the game is somehow in black's favour but it's a mad position and particularly when you're short of time this is so difficult. Stockfish recommends g4 in this position. I mean it's a ludicrous move. So obviously if pawn takes then e4 can be taken and if queen takes it just thinks rook f2 and you know perhaps later on it might be possible to shift a rook to the g-file with some counterplay. A very interesting idea but the kind of thing that when you're short of time I mean playing a move like that you'd have to be an absolute genius to play that. But Prague panicked here. We're on move 33 he's in time pressure. I mean both players in time pressure. c5 so he wants to open up this diagonal but actually the queen really doesn't do much and more to the point there's actually just a simple tactic that Prague had overlooked. Rook takes and if knight takes then bishop e6 check just wins the queen. So king b1 and this is utterly lost now. You can see that Sindarov is now a piece up and this is move 38. I mean I think they were down to a couple of minutes maybe a minute Prague something like that. So they're going to make the time control but by this stage it is utterly lost. So Sindarov has given back the piece played queen f6. I mean white has to exchange queens here otherwise the king is going to be checkmated and of course a rook and pawn in game four pawns up is completely winning. So that was the final position. Prague resigned here. Wow I mean that was a very impressive game by Sindarov. Not because it was a perfect game but impressive in the sense that he played with such confidence and in the interviews after the game you know he was just you know his self-belief was palpable. He just knew this was going to be okay for black even though he was a piece down it's a messy position. You know it really feels like he has momentum at the moment. Will that take him all the way to victory in the candidates? It's hard to say. Still very early. Anyway let's just recap the results from round three. So Prague Ananda 0 Sindarov 1 and Caruana defeated Wei Yi. Do take a look at my other video from from today. It's an extraordinary miniature actually. Incredible game. Very unusual and the other two games were pretty solid draws. So let's just take a quick look at the standings of three rounds of the 2026 candidates. We have two leaders Fabiano Caruana and Shavahir Sindarov on two and a half. Prague one and a half. Matthias Bluebaum on one half. I think Bluebaum is going for the Bluebaum Matthias Bluebaum sweep but not with wins. He's had three draws so far and we have a fantastic pairing tomorrow. Sindarov against Caruana. That's going to be an absolute blast.